Children are just too afraid of injections and so this information spells good news for them.  With the help of technology, scientists have been able to develop a single injection which will encompass all the childhood vaccination.

The all in one injection contains different vaccines in microscopic capsules that are stored in the body and released, if required with boosters, at the appropriate time.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have conducted tests on mice and found this method successful. They have successfully designed the micro-capsules to release different vaccine particles at exactly nine, 20 and 41 days after they were first injected.

The micro-capsules are biodegradable and break down at the right time to release the vaccines. Currently, babies have to be injected several times for vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, whooping cough, Hib and hepatitis B. They are also given jabs for meningitis, measles, mumps and rubella.  The new technology will enable all these vaccinations to be given in a single jab.

Professor Robert Langer of MIT who jointly led the study said that it is for the first time that they were able to create a library of tiny encased vaccine particles, each programmed to be released at a precise, predictable time so that people could potentially receive a single injection with multiple boosters already built into it.